Journal Article

Perfect Phylogenetic Networks: A New Methodology for Reconstructing the Evolutionary History of Natural Languages

Luay Nakhleh, Ringe, Don, Warnow, Tandy

2005

Overview

In this article we extend the model of language evolution exemplified in Ringe et al. 2002, which recovers phylogenetic trees optimized according to a criterion of weighted maximum compatibility, to include cases in which languages remain in contact and trade linguistic material as they evolve. We describe our analysis of an Indo-European (IE) dataset (originally assembled by Ringe and Taylor) based on this new model. Our study shows that this new model fits the IE family well and suggests that the early evolution of IE involved only limited contact between distinct lineages. Furthermore, the candidate histories we obtain appear to be consistent with archaeological findings, which suggests that this method may be of practical use. The case at hand provides no opportunity to explore the problem of conflict between network optimization criteria; that problem must be left to future research.

• Publisher: Linguistic Society of America
• Subject: Adjectives / Albs / Algorithms / Archaeology / Borrowing / Classification / Comparative and classificatory studies / Comparative linguistics / Datasets / Diachronic Linguistics / Evolution / Evolutionary genetics / Historical analysis / Historical linguistics / Indo European Languages / Language / Language Change / Language Classification / Language Contact / Language typology / Languages / Lineage / Linguistics / Measures / Methodology / Natural language / Network analysis / Paleolinguistics / Philosophy of language / Phylogenetics / Phylogeny / Predicate / Property / Scalarity (Semantics) / Typology / Verbs